Time is on a Musician’s Side
Use Your Practice Time Wisely
While most students of the banjo, guitar or mandolin recognize that learning an instrument will take both time and patience, there are a few who feel that they should progress further in a shorter period of time. A student will say to me, “I have been playing for a year already and I’m just not getting better”. To this student, a year seems like a long time. Quite the contrary, a year of studying and practicing music (including taking music lessons), is an insignificant period of time. In fact, a serious student can expect to play for many years before he or she becomes more comfortable with playing an instrument. It may take six or seven years before you actually feel you are reaching a level where playing songs is appealing to both you and an audience.
Practice Pays Dividends
When a students exhibits their frustration in this manner, a teacher such as myself, has to ask a few questions. First, how much time are you practicing? Second, are you practicing every day? If you step away from your instrument for a week, it will show in your playing. Similarly, if you practice a song for a period of time and then let that song sit for weeks, you will quickly forget the song. You see, practicing a banjo, guitar, mandolin or any other instrument requires dedication and commitment. Otherwise, the limited time you invest in practicing your instrument will not yield the results that you may expect. I am sure you have heard the saying “You get what you pay for.” In musical terms, the saying is “You get out of your instrument what you put into it.”
So the next time you sit down to practice your banjo, guitar or mandolin, use your time wisely. Do the hard work. Play some scales. Practice a strumming technique. Play some rolls or work on your tremolo or vamping technique. Take a small break but make sure you return and practice some more. Practice a minimum of an hour a day and if you can help it, don’t go a day without practicing. Remember ………
And I agree with you….the problem is that most of us that are starting out now have already lived over half our lifetime…..we NEED to squeeze it in quickly!
So true. I wish that I was more disciplined. The more time invested definitely pays off. I recognize it every wednesday night. “Yep, I should have practiced that one more” or “wow, Im glad I practiced that song”. Either way it’s up to us.
I think my problem is being impatient. I do want to be better than I am and at the same time I do not see how I am progressing. My wife tries to tell me. Fretmentor tries to tell me. And sometimes I see the progress, but other times I get down on myself because I expect to be professional-sounding in less than six months of playing. When I give my self a break and practice and have fun, I do a lot better.
My issue is that I started out practicing songs but I couldn’t play them correctly because I didn’t know the proper techniques. So I started taking private lessons to learn technique, however, with every lesson I get a new technique to practice. My learning curve is steep because I too, am in that 3rd quarter of life. Now that I’m working on technique, I also have to make time for the songs but it’s tough because it’s a slow process and until I master the techniques I still don’t play the songs correctly. Catch 22 I guess. But I’m not giving up.
This a great article Fretmentor, frustration is a constant obsticle
for me, I thought I was alone. Thanks
You definitely get out of it what you put in. Music is so vast, that you can study many facets of it, and never really become bored. There are many firsts and achievements along the way. It certainly is one of life’s more rewarding disciplines.
Practice without purpose is just noodeling around.
Fun but not too useful.
I am beginning to notice an improvment in my right hand technique which, has been my main problem in picking. I found that playing or practicing with extreme vigor and wearing out my picking hand/ arm to the point of muscle burn before I quit for the night has developed the right muscles for strength and memory. I am beginning to not have to think about where or what my pick is doing now. ‘Still making mistakes but, loess often. I used to get frustrated. Now I get even.
I am definitely one of the frustrated ones. A year IS a long time and I’m always thinking “I should be better than this after a year’s worth of effort.” The problem is that you never really notice your own small incremental improvements. This was proven to me a couple of weeks ago when I played for someone during the holiday break. I hadn’t seen that same person since March, and they were surprised at how far I had come. So, all I can say is keep plugging away at it. I can’t wait until they hear me next year.